IRELAND’S luck in qualifiers has turned after Valeri Aleksanyan’s own-goal and a strike from Richard Dunne booked a place in the play-offs.

After Thierry Henry’s handball denied Ireland a World Cup place last year, they were due some fortune. It arrived when Armenian keeper Roman Berezovsky was sent off for handling outside his area, when he had controlled the ball with his chest.

Then three minutes before the break Aleksanyan turned Damien Duff’s cross into his own net. Dunne, above, made it two on the hour with an easy tap-in before Henrikh Mkhitaryan pulled one back.

Ireland had Kevin Doyle sent off but they held on. “Armenia are one of the best teams in the group and this is a great result. But we’ve only done 50 per cent – now there’s a play-off,” said Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni.